Matthew 16:1-12 One More Sign

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called

Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Good morning.

Welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here. And I just want to thank all of you for coming out on this cold, wintry

Sunday morning. A special welcome to those of you that maybe this is your first time with us.

Just glad that you've taken the chance to come out and participate in something that's different.

And I recognize that sometimes being a visitor to a new place can be a little intimidating. So I just encourage you as much as possible, make yourself at home.

There's coffee and juice and donuts back there. Restrooms are out the double doors and down the hallway on the left if you need those.

And as a church, we've been working our way through the book of Matthew. Some of you are here and you've never heard me preach on Matthew, but we've actually been working our way through it over the course of several years.

We're up to chapter 16 right now. As a matter of fact, the interesting thing is every once in a while, how many of you are on Facebook?

A couple of you, a handful of us. If you're on Facebook every once in a while, it'll tell you like, on this date a few years ago, this happened.

Nine years ago today, I preached on Matthew chapter one. So that tells you how long we've been in this series.

And what I've done is I've used the book of Matthew in a little bit of a different way. It's kind of been a filler series for me over the last nine years, during the holidays or at different times in between other books of the

Bible. I'll just pick up where we left off in Matthew and continue on. And I do this because of the way that the gospel writers tell the history of the life of Jesus.

Makes it very easy to just jump in and do a chapter. So that's what we're going to be doing over the holidays. We're going to be zeroing in a little bit more on Matthew, particularly

Matthew chapter 16 and looking at that. And I also like to get back to, by the way, one of the reasons

I'll go back to Matthew often over the holidays is to go back to thinking about Jesus, to make sure that our focus is directly on him and the way that he lived his life and the things that he did.

The reality is I fear that we only focus our attention during this time of the year.

How many of you have some traditions about the holidays? And some of you are designed to like the routine things, the schedules, the rhythms of life, the holiday season, the

Christmas music, all of those different thoughts. But my fear is that during this time of the year, we can tend to take a break from thinking about Jesus accurately.

We can tend to begin to worship eight pounds, six ounce baby Jesus. You know what

I'm talking about. You know that little baby lying in a manger and we take a pause on his authority.

We take a pause on his leadership. We take a pause on his kingdom to just think about the little baby in the manger.

And I would suggest that we will be spiritually poorer to spend a season taking a break from the authority of Jesus Christ, to only focus on his humility, to only focus on that aspect of the incarnation.

Now, the fact of the matter is it is good. It is good for us to think of the reality that Jesus came to us in humility, right?

Isn't that a good thing? Of course, that's a good thing that the incarnation God came in flesh.

That's amazing. It's mind -blowing. That could take a big chunk of our focus. But we need to take

Jesus in his entirety if we're going to worship him in truth. We cannot take one aspect of his life, one aspect of him.

That's why we need to be students of his word to know him in a more full way in all of the aspects.

So he came to us in humility. He came to us in such natural means as human birth.

He came as one of us to live with us, to sympathize with us.

He came to teach us because he has the authoritative teaching. He came to lead us because he is the rightful king.

He came to live a perfect life for us, to be the sinless lamb of God. And most importantly, he came to give his life for us to take away our sins on the cross.

And one day he will return as the triumphant king over all. So in our text this morning, we're going to get back to thinking about Jesus' teaching, to think about the way that he lived his life, to think about the things that he did while he was here.

And in our text, Jesus is going to be challenged by the religious leaders of his day and age to perform a miracle for them.

They're going to say, hey, we're going to make a drumbeat and you dance to our drumbeat. You do what we tell you to do,

Jesus. We're going to give the commands and you jump when we tell you to. And Jesus is going to refuse.

And in his refusal, he then turns to his disciples in our text to warn them of the tragic teaching of religious people who lack faith.

The message of Jesus while on this earth is a contemporary message for us, one that strikes right where we live here in 2018, even here in Matawan, Michigan.

It is still so common for people to rise to religious power, to rise to religious influence, to rise and to be raised up in religious authority while remaining disconnected from a relationship with the

Almighty God. That's a problem in our culture. That's a problem all around us in books that we have available to us, in podcasts and things that we can take in.

And Jesus holds out a stern warning in our text about false teachers. And he holds out a firm warning to those of us who would be tempted to follow false teachers.

Jesus didn't come to earth to coddle his followers. He didn't come to make suggestions to help us to achieve our life goals.

Jesus came as the Savior and the Lord with authority and with power. He fought against a religious establishment that was devoid of true worship in his life.

And I would suggest to you that there is a potential, if we're not careful, we'll fall into a mushy sentimentality of the holiday season with generic feelings of peace and goodwill and know that that's supposed to be the standard, despite the fact that, how many of you know that sometimes the holidays are anything but peaceful?

Is there a reality to that? Sometimes it's the busiest season of the year, the time with the least amount of reflection, the time with the least amount of attention to the very

God that we claim to be serving in this season. And that all really needs to be seasoned on the fact that the reason that that baby is in the manger, the reason that he came was to fix us, to fix what is broken, which is us.

He didn't come to accommodate us. He didn't come to soften our hearts with his tiny hands and little baby face.

He came in humility so that his powerful signs and authoritative teaching might be set in the backdrop of humble beginnings.

So let's open our Bibles, if you're not already there, to Matthew chapter 16. We're gonna be looking at the first 12 verses, one through 12 here.

Matthew chapter 16, one through 12. If you don't have a Bible or a device to navigate to the Bible, then take the

Bible under the seat in front of you and turn over to Matthew 16. We're gonna read this in its entirety, recast.

This is God's very word to us. Such a privilege. I don't know if we all recognize what an amazing privilege it is that we have access to this, that you can have this in your hands, you can have this on a device that you can carry wherever you go, and you can hear from God in a moment's notice.

So Matthew chapter 16, verses one through 12. And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

He answered them. When it is evening, you say, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red, and in the morning it will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.

You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.

So he left them and departed. When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.

Jesus said to them, watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

And they began discussing among themselves, saying, we brought no bread. But Jesus, aware of this, said, oh you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?

Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the 5 ,000 and how many baskets you gathered?

Or the seven loaves for the 4 ,000 and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread?

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the

Pharisees and Sadducees. Let's pray. Father, it is a privilege to have access to your word.

A privilege that I think we could all rightly confess we take for granted on a regular basis. And something that we don't even take full advantage of.

So Father, I just pray that in the opportunity that we have in these moments together to contemplate and consider your word and consider your son.

And over this holiday season, to even just reflect a little bit more on the robust teaching of Jesus and the way that he lived his life and the things that he did and the things that he said.

Father, I pray that you would move in our hearts to transform us by encountering the very

Lord of our lives, the King over all, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And Father, I just thank you so much for his sacrifice.

What a sacrifice it was in the incarnation for him to come down. What a sacrifice it was for him to live a sinless, perfect life.

To obey on our behalf what we could not obey and then to take upon himself the sin, the pain, the suffering, the torture, the agony that we deserved.

To take that in and on himself so that we could be set free. And so,

Father, I pray that the singing that we are about to take part in would be a reflection of the set -free nature of our hearts and our souls,

Father, that together here at Recast, being a redeemed people, being a people who are constantly and continually being sanctified and set apart for your purposes,

Father, that you would move our tongues to praise you with just a depth of heart and a depth of thought that goes far beyond just good

Christmas songs, heading out into the Christmas season, some new songs to sing, and some new things like that.

But, Father, that it would be worshiped to you because of the sacrifice of your son and that we have been set free with hope and purpose and that we are deeply loved and that we would rejoice in spirit and in truth this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, yeah, go ahead and get seated, but make yourself comfortable and if at any time you need to get more coffee or juice or donuts or use the restrooms, get up and head back there if you need to stretch out.

The point is to be able to focus as much as possible on Matthew 16, 1 through 12 over the remaining of our time and so it would be good for you to have your

Bibles open or your device open to Matthew 16, 1 through 12 so that you can see that the things that I'm saying are coming from God's word and even interact with the word on your own as you're sitting there listening in.

Sometimes it's usually good whenever you jump into the middle of a book in the Bible to understand a little bit what's come before and what's come after and there's a couple of things that have happened recently in Matthew when we come to chapter 16 that are very important to understanding why

Jesus is talking about what he's talking about. So going back to chapters 14 and 15 of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus has bounced back and forth in the northern reaches of Israel between Jewish territory and Gentile territory.

Now Jews would not hang out with Gentiles, they would not pass through their districts, they would not eat food with them.

Gentile is just a big word for non -Jew, any non -Jew, anybody like us. Most of us probably do not have a lot of Jewish ancestry in us, some in the room maybe but probably not many of us and so anybody who is non -Jewish was a

Gentile and Jesus has been going back and forth between those two territories and what we saw back in chapter 14 is he fed 5 ,000 people in the

Jewish territory with just five loaves and two fishes. So they passed out, he passed these out, he broke the bread and he prayed over it and then he began passing it out to his disciples and it ended up being a whole lot more than five loaves and two fishes and then they collected leftovers and there were baskets and baskets full of leftovers.

So an amazing miracle, Jesus somehow manufacturing bread from nothing.

So just an amazing, amazing event there and the religious leaders known as the Pharisees came and challenged his practices there in chapter 15 and in challenging his practices they said, how come your disciples don't wash their hands?

I mean the pettiness, have any of you ever encountered the pettiness of religious people? A little bit, just being honest,

I mean you're in a church and you're like, I don't know whether I'm allowed to raise my hand or not. Yeah, we can be very petty people and the fact of the matter is the more that you get into the law, the more that you get into legalism, the more that there can be really petty restrictions and they're complaining, the

Messiah, the Son of God is standing in front of them and they're like, you don't wash your hands right. Like what? So that was the attitude of the

Pharisees back in chapter 15 and after a rough interaction with the Pharisees he withdrew deep into Gentile territory where the

Pharisees would refuse to follow him. It's like he said, you know what? I'm done with you guys. I'm gonna head up towards Tyre and Sidon way deep into where the

Gentiles are and they would have judged him even for that. They'd be like, who is this Jew that he's wandering around the countryside with all of these people being polluted by these pagans and their bacon, you know?

So there you have it, a nice Jewish, not Jewish feast. Oh man, that looks good.

Anybody, anybody when you see bacon, it's like your heart just, oh, love. Right there and clogged arteries too but you know, all the same.

But while among the Gentiles he then fed, so he had the feeding of the 5 ,000 and many people, you know, I think that when

I was younger I kind of thought, oh, the feeding of the 5 ,000, feeding of the 4 ,000, maybe they were the same event and they just kind of miscounted.

Anybody ever thought that in your mind? Well, the Bible doesn't allow for that because there's actually two separate events.

The feeding of the 4 ,000 happened while he was out in Gentile territory. It was kind of a point, okay?

What I have to offer is not just for the Jews. What I have to offer is for the

Gentiles as well and he worked miracles among the Gentiles, healing them, casting demons out and feeding them.

It's a demonstration, it's an intentional demonstration. How many of you are glad that Jesus is for the Gentiles as well?

That's us. Yeah, I hope you're happy about that. And he fed 4 ,000

Gentiles with just seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. And at the end of chapter 15, his disciples loaded on a boat to head back into Jewish territory.

They left the Gentile territory, they fed people, there was all of these miracles and then they head back into Jewish territory.

So it shouldn't surprise us that they're waiting on the shore right at the edge of Gentile territory are the Pharisees who have been waiting for him to test him and to bring back to him their issues and they're just like, okay, he's out there but he'll come back and when he comes back, we'll get him then.

And we find out now in chapter 16 that an additional group has joined with the Pharisees to test the

Lord, a group called the Sadducees. Now I don't wanna turn this into a history class but sometimes it's helpful when you see these words, you might have some fuzzy notions or some ideas in your mind about Pharisees and Sadducees and what they believed.

Maybe you've heard it in a message before but it is very beneficial and helpful for us to understand what the

Pharisees and the Sadducees in general understood or believed in order to understand this text. So they were very opposite in their religious practices despite the fact that they're both

Jewish sects within the idea of Judaism, even within the leadership of Judaism, very different beliefs and they both held a semblance of power in Israel.

As a matter of fact, the ruling body of the Jews called the Sanhedrin was made up primarily of Pharisees and Sadducees.

These two groups who didn't necessarily get along theologically or in practice but were the ruling people of the nation of Israel.

And so the Pharisees were religiously zealous for the law. When you think of Pharisee, it helps to think fair, you see.

They're always concerned with fairness but not quite really because they're concerned with the law.

So think in terms of law, law, law requiring tons of rules. How many steps can you take on the

Sabbath? What can you and can't you eat? How do you wash your hands? All of these kinds of things that they would be deeply concerned about.

They were judgmental, they were powerful and enjoyed telling everyone else what to do. They were the religious police of the day.

That's what you need to think of when you think of Pharisee. A high influence on the masses of the people, very connected with the commoner during this time and judgmental towards the commoner and the commoners would go to the

Pharisees to find out how to rule in their family and what to do about different issues that came up. The Sadducees were a lot more progressive.

They ran in the aristocratic, wealthy areas. They were kind of like the religious leadership for the wealthy and kind of prided themselves as kind of being like personal priests, personal religious counsel to wealthy people.

How many of you think there might be some benefits in that? There might be some ulterior motives in that and that was the case with the Sadducees.

They didn't even believe there was a resurrection at all after this life and therefore they were a lot more lax about laws and ceremonies and all this but they still enjoyed enough power among the aristocratic and wealthy to be willing to be concerned for the religious atmosphere, that they might maintain power, they might maintain influence among the wealthy.

Fear, can you imagine all the things that Jesus said about wealth, how that might influence the Sadducees, might rub them the wrong way and so they're afraid that Jesus is gonna begin to get some of the people that are following them to follow him.

So that's what's going on here in the text and so the fact that these two groups come together to test

Jesus is significant. They agreed about very little else but one thing that they could see eye to eye on is that they needed to oppose this new religious teacher in Israel.

They came together to oppose Jesus and the reason I'm saying to oppose him, you kind of look at the word that's used here and it says that they wanted to test him but that word test there in the

English Standard Version, there might be a different translation and a different word used in different translations but the word test in the

ESV is probably not the greatest translation of this word. It probably ought to be translated in the most derogatory form of this word because you see, this is the very same

Greek word used earlier in the book of Matthew for the temptation of Jesus.

They didn't come together to test him. They came together to tempt him. This is a temptation that these religious rulers are bringing before him.

They are not coming, what you have to get over in your mind is the idea that the Pharisees here or the

Sadducees here are like, Jesus, we're not sure who you really are. We're not really sure and just in sincerity of heart, could you just show us a sign?

Could you give us something that would really give us faith? That's not the heart attitude of the Pharisees and the

Sadducees here. They're trying to trip him up. They're even to some degree trying to say, you know what? You know what we'd really love?

We would love for you to do what we tell you to do because we would love the people all around us right now to see you dancing to our tune.

So if we tell you to give us a sign and you give us a sign, the people are gonna be like, wow, he even obeys the

Pharisees and the Sadducees. There's all different kinds of things that are going on and nuances between the

Pharisees and the Sadducees and Jesus here in this text. They are coming with hopes of disproving him.

And the request in verse one seems to be innocent enough, right? Would you show us a sign? How many of you just being flat out honest have ever asked

God for a sign? I have. I've been like, could you just write it in the clouds? Could you just make something happen?

You know, could you do something to show me, give me direction, give me guidance? Well, they wanted a miracle and they come to him and say as much.

And it's important for us to understand that the Pharisees have already been granted signs. They've been present in these crowds.

They have seen Jesus work miracles. I believe that there were even Pharisees present at the feeding of the 5 ,000 when he was there giving this amazing sign to the

Jews. They were present during much of this. And I want to just point out that they have refused to heed the things that they have already seen.

They've refused to believe in Christ as the true Messiah. And instead, they are here seeking to sow doubt.

Remember that they hold leadership positions in Israel. People are looking up to the Pharisees. They're looking up to the Sadducees.

So the common person watching this interchange between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and Jesus would be left with a thought, if the powerful and well -learned religious leaders who

I'm supposed to be respecting and following don't believe Jesus yet after all that they've seen, maybe

I shouldn't either. Do you see how the lack of faith of the

Sadducees and Pharisees could rub off on the common people? And that's part of what's going on here. They know it.

They know exactly what they're doing. They're like, maybe we could cast some doubt on Jesus by just doubting him ourselves.

Maybe our doubt and our lack of faith and our lack of belief will rub off on others. And that's what they wanted because they wanted to retain power.

They wanted to retain authority. They even, to some degree, wanted to retain their ability to spiritually abuse the masses.

So Jesus answers the Pharisees and Sadducees in a very interesting way in verse two and three.

He uses meteorology to get to a two -pronged point here in the text.

The ancient meteorology that he used has been well -attested. Multiple languages have given quotes to some degree.

Different cultures have said this. That's what's kind of interesting is as you study some of the things that the Bible says, you actually realize that there were ancient formulas and ancient ideas that multiple cultures came to the same conclusions and they had their own little rhymes and their own little ditties.

But the simplistic rule of thumb regarding weather has been stated, red sky in the morning, shepherds warning.

Red sky at night, shepherds delight. How many of you ever heard that? Or sailor. Sometimes you hear sailor in there instead.

That's because we live in Michigan. But yeah, so you've heard it and it's a truism that isn't always true.

How many of you ever seen a red sky in the morning and had a good day? Like it's not always 100 % the case, but it's a truism, a proverb that by and large could be used.

Of course, they couldn't tune into channel three or the weather channel or whatever and they didn't have apps for that or their watch that tells them what the weather is and stuff like that.

So in verse three, Jesus is chastising the religious leaders for being able to interpret. He says, you can interpret simple signs.

I know this. You can see. You're able to open your eyes and see what's going on. Simple signs and symbols around you, but you're not able to see the stark, the crazy, the amazing clear signs that have been brought into your midst where the blind are being healed, the lame are walking.

I'm feeding masses with just five little loaves of bread and you can't open your eyes and see. The two prongs of this weather -related illustration are this.

It first shows his first point. You can do it, guys. Pharisee said, you got this.

You can interpret signs just fine. You're able to use your senses to determine what's going on around you.

You look at the sky and you're able to tell what the weather is. You're sharp. You're bright. You got this. But I think he also uses this specific illustration, red sky in the morning, red sky at night, for another reason.

I think there's a subtlety in the way that Jesus teaches and sometimes it's just amazing when you study and you really get down to it. You don't see it at first blush, but the thing that he's doing here is nuanced and interesting.

You see, if the red sky is in the morning, it spells out something than a different red sky at night.

Same sign. Same exact same thing that you're able to perceive and take in with your senses.

What is the sign? A red sky. But the difference is when it takes place, how it falls on the person from their perspective.

Same sign, but two different expectations. Red sky in the morning, warning. Red sky at night, delight.

Jesus is subtly identifying that it is the same with his signs and wonders. When he performs a miracle, some will see and believe.

But when others see the exact same miracle, they will doubt and want just one more miracle.

Same sign, two different responses, two different results. Do you see that? And that's what he's getting at.

The feeding of the 5 ,000, some believed and some didn't. And what was the difference then?

Well, I'm gonna steal my own thunder from next week because next week he's gonna mine deep into this. But the answer is faith.

Faith is the ultimate distinction between being able to apprehend and understand the miraculous and not being able to understand and apprehend the miraculous.

Well, we might be tempted to think that Jesus escalates things a little bit quickly. Boy, that took off too fast.

I mean, verse four, he basically shouts at them, he calls his generation an evil and adulterous generation.

I wanna just point out grammatically, we might get a little confused and a little bit nervous because I asked you to raise your hand if you've ever asked

Jesus for a sign. Does that make you evil, wicked? Does that make you adulterous because you've asked for a sign before? Well, the grammar in this

Greek text here helps us to understand that he is not saying that the seeking of a sign is wicked and adulterous.

He's saying that those who in their heart are wicked and adulterous are the kinds of people who most often will routinely seek for a sign.

They think that their issue is that they haven't got enough proof yet. There are people in your lives, there are people all around us who think that they don't have enough proof yet.

They've got everything that they need. They have everything that they need to believe and they just don't have that faith granted to them.

In context, Jesus is clearly calling these religious leaders evil and adulterous. They were wicked because they actually abused others spiritually.

As a matter of fact, in Matthew chapter 23, Jesus rails at the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Matthew 23, he's, oh, woe to you, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, woe to you, woe to you.

In other words, judgment to you, judgment to you, judgment to you, because you have abused those under your authority.

You have abused those that are poor in spirit. You have abused those who are down and out and you've heaped heavy burdens on the shoulders of the people.

Your rules, your laws, your ways, your hoops to jump through. They were wicked, but they were also adulterous.

And the word adultery and idolatry are often interrelated throughout all the prophetic teachings. When you hear somebody railing against somebody using the word adultery, it's not often the actual sin of adultery, but it has more to do with idolatry, a being married as a people of God to God and then cheating on him.

That's the idea of how idolatry and adultery get kind of crossed over. The idea of being in a committed relationship with Jesus and going off and worshiping other things on the side.

That's the picture that we have there. And they were adulterous because these particular religious leaders worshiped wealth, fame, and power.

They didn't worship God. They used religion to gain power and authority over others. And they used religion to gain wealth and prestige for themselves.

In this sense, they served as a classical model of stereotypical false teachers. And Jesus, here in our text, he refused to dance to their tune.

He refused to accommodate them with a new sign. He says, nah, not today. Not gonna do this thing.

He says, the only sign that you have to look forward to, I'm gonna give you a sign. As a matter of fact, it's gonna be a global sign.

It's gonna be a big sign. Everybody at least gets in on this sign. And he says it's the sign of Jonah. And he leaves it at that here in our text.

Well, why does he leave it at that? Because way back in Matthew chapter 12, he's already talked with them about the sign of Jonah.

He's already explained it to them. This is not the first interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees in the book of Matthew.

So back in his history, back in Matthew 12, 40, he said this about the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the

Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The only sign they will be given is the sign of his death, burial, and resurrection.

And even that will not prove to be enough for some religious people. And he left the

Pharisees and Sadducees and went off in a boat to the other side of the lake. Not his last interaction that he's gonna have with them, but a serious and significant one.

And when they reached the other side, the disciples began to stress, it says in the text, because they had forgotten to bring along whatever might, maybe the leftovers from the feeding of the 4 ,000.

They had a lot of baskets. At one point in this narrative, they had a lot of bread. Now they don't have any and they're worried about it.

And Jesus, who is ever cryptic in his teaching, he capitalizes on the moment of their concern for bread and uses bread as a metaphor.

I wonder if maybe you could indulge me and allow me to call it a bread -a -phor. Thank you, that was nice.

Courteous laughter, I appreciate it. Yeah, a bread -a -phor. But having just interacted with the

Pharisees and the Sadducees, now he warns his disciples to watch and beware of their leaven.

Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Jesus is seeking to use his interaction with the religious leaders to teach a lesson to his inner circle of disciples and to help recenter them, help bring them back from this confusing thing that they just saw.

But they're thick and they sidetrack the conversation. He mentions leaven and they begin to discuss their lack of bread.

Do you see that in the text? You see, typical guys, these disciples were just typical, just like most of the dudes in the room who are usually thinking with their stomachs.

So immediately, the reference to leaven is like, oh yeah, bread, that sounds good. Let's have some fresh bread right now.

And there's always one guy in the crowd, there's always someone in the crowd who isn't in the conversation but hears a couple of words and is like, did somebody mention leaven?

Oh, we forgot the bread, dang it, we forgot the bread, right? And there's always somebody who's probably fattiest, maybe

Nathaniel, I don't know, but one of them just kind of like, not quite in the conversation, but I heard leaven,

I'm hungry. Well, it's very interesting to help to note that in verses eight through 11, I think this is just so powerful.

In my study, it was very powerful to me to just sit and just to soak up the reality of the way that our

Lord and Savior works with us, works in our foolishness, works through our foolishness, works with us in our inability to apprehend what he's doing and what he's saying.

You see, basically, verses eight through 11 are a complete sideline to what Jesus wants to be talking about.

How many of you wanna be talking with Jesus about what he wants to talk about? How many of you think that that's valuable? But instead, no, we're gonna talk about what the disciples wanna talk about here for a minute.

Jesus brings up a subject and they sidetrack it, and now we're gonna talk about what the disciples wanna talk about for a couple of verses.

Complete side note. But I point this out so that we can all realize the grace and kindness of our

Savior. How many are glad that he's patient with you? How many are glad that he doesn't give up on you the first time you're thick and don't get what he wants you to know?

He's gracious, he's kind. He doesn't, here in our text, roll his eyes and walk off onto the lake to get away from them.

He doesn't even call them cotton -headed ninny -muggins. Season, he does, however, interestingly enough, he criticizes.

He doesn't say, I love it the way that he words this, because this is the distinction between the

Pharisees who will refuse to get it and the disciples who are trying to get it. You see, there's a reason that we're talking about signs in both of these.

He's gonna talk about the feeding of the 5 ,000, signs, he's gonna talk about signs that the disciples should have gotten.

And what makes the difference between them and the Pharisees? The Pharisees didn't get it either, so are they all in the same boat? No, they are not at all in the same boat, because they have faith, but he criticizes the size of their faith.

He says, oh, you of little faith. I don't know that he said that with fire in his eyes and anger.

As much as pity and compassion. Oh, you, oh, you of little faith. You've been with me so long.

Are you still so slow to get it? What is the first thing that we desire to be doing here at Recast Church?

Grow in faith. I mean, Jesus says, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you could say to a mountain, move and it will be moved into the sea.

What would he do with a softball -sized faith? Or a basketball -sized faith? Or an earth -sized faith?

Do you get what I'm saying? Growing our faith is part of the purpose and point of what God has us here on this planet to do.

Oh, you, he says here, of little faith, and criticizes the size of their faith, but he's compassionate.

But I would suggest to you, he's not wrong, and he's not being insulting to them.

Just to think in the context of what's going on here and how foolish we can be, how foolish the disciples are. They are just reflecting us in this text.

How many of you know that it reflects a diminutive, a tiny, small faith to be sitting there with deep concern over bread when you were just used to collect the leftover baskets of 5 ,000 people fed with five loaves of bread?

Or 4 ,000 fed with seven loaves of bread, and they're worried about bread. How many of you think, probably, if you had been witness to those signs, if you had been used to pass out that bread, and you had been used to collect the leftovers, that that might have a dramatic impact on your life?

How many would like to think that? I think that that would have a dramatic impact on me. But in honesty, we are just like the disciples.

We see his gracious kindness, and bow in gratitude at his provision for us one moment, and find ourselves terribly anxious and worried the next.

Right? Isn't that us? I mean, we can't criticize the disciples for this. They saw miracles, but so have we.

But they experienced God's provision, and so have we. And moments later, we're terrified.

What am I going to do in this situation? What's going to happen here? Tell me the future. I got to know. I got to know. The point in all of this is that signs do not produce faith.

Signs never produce faith. Rather, faith, I would suggest to you, makes sense of signs.

And we're going to see where all of this is leading next week, for next week's faith is granted to the disciples that we see the source of faith that comes from on high.

You see, the disciples next week are going to receive a significant boost, a significant dose of intense faith about the identity of who their rabbi really is.

And Jesus is going to say, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, but this truth comes from my

Father. Where does your faith come from? Your faith comes from God. It does not come from seeing enough signs, but it is a faith that is a gift from the

Father himself. I love how Jesus appeals to the amazing signs of the feeding of the 4 ,000 and the 5 ,000 here in verses 9 and 10.

Here in his teaching, he demonstrates why he would refuse to do more miracles upon request.

It's not going to produce what it needs to produce in the lives of those who reject him. Those who would request a miracle as a test already show that they lack the faith to discern the miracle.

Again, I say miracles cannot produce faith. Rather, faith is the prerequisite to perceive something as miraculous.

What I'm getting at in all of this is just simply stated, miracles are never miracles to a faithless mind.

There must be some logical explanation, says the faithless mind. Where are the strings? Where are the mirrors?

Can I look up your sleeve, Jesus? Did you have some loaves stuffed up there? What about under your shirt?

Where do the extra loaves come from, Jesus? I know there's an explanation for this. Without faith, no miracle ever looks like a miracle.

Do you get what I'm saying in that? It's not convincing. You need just one more. You always need just one more without faith.

Miracles don't convince us. You can always explain those away. Signs are never enough. And Jesus identified that problem in verse eight by calling his disciples, oh, you of little faith.

But the beauty in that is that they do have some. How many of you have been to the point where you think if Jesus was to look you in the eyes right now, he might just say, not right this second, but you've been to a point where it was like, yeah, he'd probably say, you of little faith to me.

But you have faith. And he honors even the littlest shred of trust in him. It's when it's absent, when there is none that we're in trouble.

Even if he were to look me in the eyes right now and say, you of little faith, I'd be like, thank you. Thank you because you're talking to me.

This is awesome. But he redirected the conversation here. Now, this was all a sideline.

Remember that? That was all, this was all their desire to talk about bread and he obliged them and used it as a teaching opportunity even in that, right?

You know, you can take the conversation this way and Jesus is still gonna get you on it. But he redirects the conversation back to the leaven of the

Pharisees in verse 11 and he repeats sternly his previous warning. I don't even, you guys didn't understand this, but let me repeat it to you again.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And this time they understood the bread of four.

By leaven, he was talking about their teaching. Now, it's interesting and important that the word teaching in verse 12 here is singular.

You geek out a little bit on grammar or whatever and I'm not super into all of that, but this really helps out a lot in this particular text to see it as and understand what it implies by the fact that it is teaching, singular, not teachings, not multiple things.

He's not just giving a general warning about Pharisees and Sadducees here. He's talking about their teaching, the use of the singular for two groups implies that Jesus is warning his followers against the singular teaching of these two groups.

And the fact of the matter is they had very little in common. And so finding out what they had in common that Jesus is warning against is important in this context.

And I would suggest to you the primary common ground of the Pharisees and the Sadducees here in the text is what Craig Keener, scholar and commentator on this text, calls a toxic cynicism.

Maybe that doesn't speak a whole lot to you, but I would maybe even call it a self -serving intentional agnosticism.

A desire to only ever doubt, only live in a realm of questions and almost disbelieve that there are answers and all wrapped up in that is a self -serving desire for power and authority over others and all that comes with that.

But whatever it's called, Jesus is warning all of us to be watchful and wary of religious movements that delight in casting doubts and demanding signs.

See, the Pharisees had a relationship with the law, but not with God by faith. The Sadducees had significant interest in ritual purity, but not a relationship with God by faith.

And Jesus is warning against that kind of false teaching, a kind of false teaching that isn't concerned with trusting

God, but instead is only interested in outward behaviors. And I think probably all of us at times in our lives have been tempted to slide over in that direction.

You see, there's a false teaching that is alive and well in the world and alive and well in churches that would seek to connect you to religious actions without trust at all by faith in God and what he's done for you.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees represented this kind of teaching and the disciples came dangerously close to buying into that same teaching.

And so Jesus here is correcting them and warning them about the dangerous spread of this false teaching.

So let's wrap this up by considering some applications in our lives. What does this have to do with us? What does it have to do with where we live in our communities and in our society today?

How can this be applied tomorrow and the next day and the next day? And the first is I think we need to contemplate and consider what's our target in this life?

What is it that we're shooting for in this Christian walk and relationship with God? The first is that I think we need to shoot for faith and not for signs.

For faith and not for proof. Now it seems unlikely that any of us here are actually miracle mongers, are seeking signs and wonders and miracles as our main mode of relating to God.

Yeah, God just gives me a miracle every day and if I don't get my miracle, I don't know what to do with myself or whatever.

I don't think anybody here is probably struggling with that. But getting this first application down can actually set us free quite a bit in our walk because the fact of the matter is

I think we do expect something that's a little unreasonable. Do you expect a doubtless experience of relationship with God?

Do you expect him to overwhelm you with evidence of himself so much that you can never doubt again?

That is not the way that the God of Scripture works. He allows the agnostic to doubt.

He allows the atheist to disbelieve and he wants his people to live by faith.

He wants us to live by faith. He is not in the proof business. He is in the faith business.

His evidences require faith to believe that they are indeed proofs. So let me just encourage everyone, what is it that you're shooting for in life?

A perfect lockdown relationship with God where every single question is answered and you have no wiggle room for doubt and he's got you under lock and key.

What is it that you're shooting for? Shoot for faith and the best way to shoot for faith is to dig into his word and pray that God would open your eyes to see him more and more day by day.

It's a journey. It's a lifelong journey. It's never that I've arrived and now I have such a solid faith that it could never be shaken and I'm in perfect standing and everything is great.

How many of you know that this is not reality? Those of us that are getting up in age and older, you actually begin to see the reality that wow,

I thought I'd be further along than I am by this age. And you kind of realize that this is a lifelong journey.

I'm in this for the marathon, not for the 100 -yard dash. It's a day by day turning ourselves over to God by faith and saying,

I trust you and I'm gonna walk with you again in this day. So the first thing is, what are you shooting for?

Shoot for faith and not for signs. The second is false teaching is contagious. It's very important for us to understand.

I think that in reality, many of us, because of the proliferation of information and just so many resources out there, so many good

Christian things that we can grab ahold of, that we have kind of watered this down, the idea of being cautious and warning one another.

As a matter of fact, it almost kind of sounds kind of judgmental because the moment that you judge something is out of bounds, you're judging, right?

So we're a very nonjudgmental culture. And again, this isn't the part where I write down a list of movies you're not allowed to go see or write down authors you're not allowed to read or TV shows you're not allowed.

The point is discernment, but my goodness, you've gotta be discerning and the only way you could be truly discerning is to know

God's word so that you know what is false. I mean, it's the whole age old, don't study the counterfeit, study the real thing so then you'll notice and be able to tell a counterfeit.

But Jesus in our text uses the word leaven. He uses that bread of four with yeast and leaven because it permeates and has a dramatic impact on the whole lump of dough.

One little part of leavened bread put in and kneaded into a lump of dough and eventually overnight, the whole thing becomes leavened.

He told his disciples to watch out for and beware of false teaching. I mentioned earlier, we have an unreasonable amount of information at our fingertips.

We can find religious leaders who will tell us exactly what we wanna hear and then we can subscribe to their podcast and listen to them every day.

You can find people who will agree with you, but how many of you know that's not a way to grow? You need to find people who know the word.

And many times, let me just suggest this, if you're listening to someone day in and day out and they never say anything that pricks your heart, they never say anything that is convicting, they never say anything that challenges you, then

I'm not sure that that's coming from God because how many of you know that God's word should convict us?

When we encounter the living God who is righteous and holy and completely other than us, if we're really digging into this, then there are times we're gonna walk away just kinda angry because he's gonna tell us some things that we need to do different.

We have an unreasonable amount of information available and more than any time the church needs to heed this warning, beware false teaching, watch carefully.

To be honest, just to share a little bit of myself, I've been accused in the past here at Recast of being overly zealous and cautious.

I've even been called spiritually anxious regarding sound doctrine and right teaching here at this church. And I will wear that title as a badge of honor so long as what it really means is that I'm obeying this warning of Jesus Christ, working to discern carefully what is being taught.

See, Jesus was concerned enough about it to warn us. And I take his warning seriously and so should you.

Don't let faithless, false, misleading teachings pour into your heart and mind. And again, I just encourage you to have discernment in all things that you read.

I'm not gonna publish a list and to be honest, I've had people come to me and say, oh my goodness, I see this book on your shelf.

How could you have that book on your shelf? Because did you know that so and so believes this and this? John Stott is an example.

John Stott, an amazing British pastor, single his entire life for the cause of Christ, wrote prolifically, wrote the book,

The Cross of Christ, a book that I wish everybody in this room would read. It's technical, it's a little bit hard slogging, but it is an amazing book.

But he didn't believe in hell. He didn't believe in a literal hell. He believed in the extinguishing of a soul at the end of its journey.

And brilliant man, wrote a lot of things. And so I had somebody say to me one time, how can you have John Stott's book on your shelf?

How dare you read that? Because he didn't believe in hell. And it's like, he wrote a beautiful book on the cross of Christ.

One of the quintessential books about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Don't toss out an author because he said one thing wrong in one book. They have to throw out all the authors.

We don't have any endorsed authors here that you can take everything that they say except the Bible. So if you want to be safe, stick to this, right?

Everything else requires your thinking cap. Don't ever shut your mind off because I'm watching a Christian station.

I'm listening to Christian radio. Everything's good here because it's Christian. Sorry. I get off a little bit there.

But I think you guys know what I'm saying. So keep your thinking caps on because the reality is it is really dangerous and we don't perceive it.

We can become so lax and we can become so comfortable. How many of you just had seasons just where it was kind of comfortable?

You forgot that you were in a war. Any of you go through seasons where you forgot that there's a spiritual war going on?

Where you forgot that there's an enemy who wants to get into your mind and make you think wrong thoughts about God?

Have you forgotten that? It's a serious battle. We need to take it seriously. So watch out.

And the third thing is learn from your history with God. The disciples had participated in the feeding of the 5 ,000 and the feeding of the 4 ,000.

And within a couple of days, they were worried about bread. They forgot the blessings of God.

They weren't rehearsing that. There's no way that at the moment where they were saying, oh no, we forgot the bread, that they were contemplating and considering the awesome sign that God had given to them just days before.

So let me just encourage all of us. I mean, I know that we're gonna go through thick times like the disciples, but let the past stories of the way that God worked in human history, getting into the word and seeing the way that he proved himself faithful in the lives of real history, and then contemplating and considering the way he's worked in your own personal history.

The lessons that he's taught you in the past, be rehearsing those, especially over, again, the holidays going into the new year to take some time to rehearse his goodness and his graciousness to you in the past, and then trust him with your future.

And lastly, take heart because we serve a God who is gracious to those of us who are thick in the head.

He indicts his disciples here in terms of not having a lot of faith. Oh, you of little faith.

Criticizes the size of their faith. And then he even shows surprise in verse 11 where he says, let's see, how is it that you fail to understand?

Incredulity on the part of our Savior. How is it? How in the world did you not get that? But he keeps on teaching.

He keeps on reminding them that faith is the answer and that we'll all pay off next week when the disciples are granted faith by the

Father himself into seeing who the identity of their rabbi truly is.

There's a distinction between those who are seeking understanding and those who are looking to maintain their own power and authority.

Well, that comes right up against the entire study of 1 Samuel that we've been going through with Saul and David and the distinctions between the two of them, both performing religious duties, but with very different hearts.

And we see it echoed here. The Pharisees and Sadducees had no desire to honor Christ. They were concerned for their own following, their own teaching, their own material gains.

But the disciples, imperfect and ignorant and as small as their faith, they had left all.

In that smallness of faith, they had left everything to follow Jesus. They are his followers.

They don't always get it, but they're trying. And he is ever so gracious to any and all who would follow him with even a shred of trust in him.

This morning as we come to communion, let's exercise our faith by coming to communion to take the cracker and the juice as symbols of his sacrifice for us.

If you've asked Jesus to save you and have asked him to be your Lord, then come to the table during this next song that David's gonna come and play for us.

And on the flip side, if you don't believe in Jesus and you know that that's reality of you, you've still got a lot of questions about him, you've never asked him to forgive you, you've never asked him to be your savior, then

I would encourage you to skip communion. But listen to his call to follow him this morning.

Maybe today would be the start of a relationship with him where you would say, I don't have it all figured out, but with a shred of faith,

I would like to become a follower of Jesus Christ. Let me know if you wanna know more about starting a relationship with Jesus Christ today.

I'll be standing out at the door at the end of the service. Grab me and say, I would love to leave everybody to their own shake another hand if you would come to me at the door and say,

I wanna talk about this. I wanna talk about this. We'd go back to my office and we can have a conversation and everybody else can find their way out the door just fine.

Am I right, church? I figured you guys find your way out all right. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you so much for your grace. I thank you for your mercy and I thank you for a faith that comes from you.

A faith that looks at the world around us and for those of us who belong to you to be able to see the miraculous that you're doing in our midst, to see the way that you're caring for us, the way that you teach us.

Even in gentleness, in the midst of our foolishness, in the midst of our thickness, even when our faith is just tiny, you're still so faithful to us.

Such a great and generous savior. To think that our king would be so gracious with us to take us under his wing and talk to us and teach us and help guide us out of falsehood into what is true.

Father, I pray that that would be a reality for everybody in this room, that we would walk out from this place strengthened, encouraged to go out and shoot for that which is right, a faith and a trust in you day by day, taking in your word.

I'm avoiding the temptations of false teaching that are out there. Father, rehearsing the good that you've done in our lives, that we might walk with you in a greater faith day by day.

And then Father, if there's anybody here who doesn't know you, I pray that today might be a day of salvation. Today might be a day of even just a shred of faith being expressed that would blossom into a glorious and beautiful relationship with you for eternity.